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Welcome to our library.
| We invite you to look through our books just as
if you were here at our home in Yarmouth -- whether
by browsing through various groups of books, or
by searching for just one book. |
HUMOR
| 1844 |
Haliburton,Thomas Chandler
Slick,Samuel |
THE ATTACHE (Second Series) |
$ 475.00 |
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[Haliburton, Thomas Chandler.] THE ATTACHE; or, Sam Slick in England. Second and Last Series. In Two Volumes. London: Richard Bentley, 1844. Original purple-brown cloth. 2 vols.
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First English Edition of this loosely-connected collection of 37 sketches featuring Haliburton's irrepressible Sam Slick. This was Haliburton's last book on Sam Slick -- following THE CLOCKMAKER (1838), THE LETTER-BAG OF THE GREAT WESTERN (1840), SAM SLICK'S SAWS AND MODERN INSTANCES (1843) -- and the First Series of THE ATTACHE (1843).
Haliburton, "probably the first original Canadian writer in English" [CGEL], was a judge who became a humorist and satirist (also, in 1829 he had written the account of Nova Scotia that became the source for Longfellow's EVANGELINE). He is best known for his adventures of Sam Slick, the wandering Yankee clockmaker (based on an actual case Haliburton heard, involving a peddler from the States who swindled farmers by selling them clocks that didn't work). "On the whole he [Slick] was a slangy, under-bred, vulgar, energetic, shrewd, cunning rogue... usually his speech is epigrammatic, rich in picturesque slang, and brilliantly amusing" [K&H]. According to Artemus Ward, the Nova Scotian Haliburton was the founder of the American school of humor; certainly with his homespun philosophy and frontier humor, he was a major literary progenitor of Mark Twain.
THE ATTACHE was published in the same cloth and style that Bentley had used for OLIVER TWIST six years earlier. This is a remarkably fine copy, with scarcely any wear; as always with this color cloth the spines are sunned, and the front endpapers are cracked. Not in Sadleir nor Wolff.
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| 1869 |
Gilbert,W. S. |
THE BAB BALLADS |
$ 250.00 |
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Gilbert, W[illiam]. S[chwenck]. THE "BAB" BALLADS. Much Sound and Little Sense. With Illustrations by the Author. London: John Camden Hotten, 1869. 4 pp undated ads. Original decorated green cloth, beveled, all edges gilt.
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First Edition of this collection of "clever verses which, in the name of good fun, discoursed amiably on violence and crime" [K&H]. Included are Gilbert's whimsical illustrations (in his Preface he says, "I have ventured to publish the illustrations with them because, while they are certainly quite as bad as the Ballads, I suppose they are not much worse"). It was not until the following decade that Gilbert began collaborating with Arthur Sullivan on the series of operettas for which they are today remembered.
This is a very good, brighter-than-usual copy (very slight shelfwear at the extremities, some cracking of the endpapers) of a volume quite difficult to find in decent condition. Searle 16.
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| 1897 |
Braunhold,Louis
Burdette,Robert J. |
CHIMES FROM A JESTER'S BELLS |
$ 175.00 |
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Burdette, Robert J. CHIMES FROM A JESTER'S BELLS. Part I. The Story of Rollo. Part II. Stories and Sketches. With Illustrations by Louis Braunhold. Cover Design by Robert J. Burdette, Jr. Indianapolis and Kansas City: The Bowen-Merrill Company, 1897. 6 pp undated ads. Original red cloth decorated in black, white and gilt.
First Edition, first printing (with the Bowen-Merrill imprint, rather than the subsequent Bobbs-Merrill one). The series "The Story of Rollo," describing a young man's "education" all the way from birth ("alpha") to death ("omega"), still offers some hilarious reading a hundred years later.
This copy is inscribed at length by the author: "To H. J. Miller, Luverne, Minnesota -- With a desire to meet him often, and to know him better, this, with the sincere esteem of the Author Robert J. Burdette, Bryn Mawr, Pa. April twenty third 1898." Furthermore, under the drawing of the author on the leaf preceding the Contents, Burdette has written "Sketched from life, by Robert, Junior" (who according to the title page also designed the binding). Near-fine condition (spine slightly darkened, rear endpaper slightly cracked). Blanck 2008.
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| 1903 |
Crosland,T. W. H.
Kipling,Rudyard |
THE FIVE NOTIONS |
$ 95.00 |
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(Kipling, Rudyard.) Crosland, T. W. H. THE FIVE NOTIONS. London: Grant Richards, 1903. Original maroon cloth.
First Edition of this poetical parody of Kipling's THE FIVE NATIONS (published earlier in 1903, and best known for "The White Man's Burden"), printed and bound similarly to its target. For example...
Take up the White Man's burden,
Descend his reeking shafts,
Gasp in his red-hot workings
And get your air in wafts:
And since there is no telling
How soon you may be dead,
Remember, that fat White Man
Is shooting overhead!
A very good copy, with slightly faded spine. Not in Stewart; Richards 1079.
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| 1877 |
Habberton,John |
HELEN'S BABIES |
$ 85.00 |
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[Habberton, John.] HELEN'S BABIES. With Some Account of Their Ways: Innocent, Droll, Fascinating, Roguish, Mischievous, and Naughty. Also, a Partial Record of Their Actions during Ten Days of Their Existence. By Their Latest Victim, Uncle Harry. Glasgow: David Bryce & Son, 1877. Original red cloth decorated in gilt and black.
First British Edition (the book was published the previous year in Boston). This is an amusing tale of woe of a 28-year-old bachelor baby-sitting for Budge and Toddie, his 5- and 3-year-old nephews (his sister Helen's babies). Recent movies on the same subject verify that things haven't changed much over the past century. The Glasgow edition's title page uses different adjectives for the "babies' ways"; in the American edition, they are described as "Innocent, Crafty, Angelic, Impish, Witching and Repulsive"). Also, the author's pseudonym, "Uncle Harry," is here added. This is an attractively bound book, with all edges gilt; the condition of this copy is very good, with minor cover soil but scarcely any wear. Wright III 2349 (American edition); a Johnson High Spot ("Side-splitting for our fathers and still amusing.").
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| 1903 |
James,Henry
Twain,Mark |
THE LITERARY GUILLOTINE |
$ 65.00 |
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(Twain, Mark) THE LITERARY GUILLOTINE. By ?. New York and London: John Lane, 1903. 3 pp undated ads. Original pictorial paper-covered boards with black cloth spine and printed label.
First Edition of this witty assortment of mock literary trials -- of which authorship is uncertain but William Wallace Whitelock has been suggested. Mark Twain is one of the characters -- namely one of the three judges. One is a case brought by Henry James against Mary Baker Eddy, claiming infringement of patent because her new book seems to bear his level of obscurity. In finding for the defendant Eddy, Mark Twain and the other two judges note,
The testimony does not show an infringement of patent on the defendant's part. On the contrary, an examination of the works of the defendant shows clearly that her obscurity is of her own invention, beyond the mental capacity of mere man... In reading the complainant's [James's] later writings, one cannot, it is true, by any effort of the mind understand the separate patent obscure sentences; but at the end one has a fairly foggy idea of the lack of progression of the story...
Fine condition.
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| 1849 |
Jerrold,Douglas
Leech,John |
A MAN MADE OF MONEY |
$ 575.00 |
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Jerrold, Douglas. A MAN MADE OF MONEY. With Twelve Illustrations on Steel by John Leech. London: Punch Office, 1848-1849. Six serial parts in original pictorial pea-green wrappers. 6 parts.
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First Edition, in the original six monthly serial parts issued from October 1848 through March 1849. Each part includes two plates by John Leech. This is Jerrold's satire on the worship of wealth: a man is preoccupied with Money, to the detriment of his wife and daughters -- but ultimately his greed does him in... The story
...is calculated to effect unmixed good -- that is, to overthrow the idolatry of money; to hold up to everlasting contempt and ridicule the servile adulation of the great; and to teach men, if they would be either happy or prosperous, they must owe their prosperity and their happiness to their own honest and humble exertions. [from an ad for the book edition, in the final part]
This set collates the same as the one cited by Wolff (12-page Advertiser in Part I, 4-page Advertiser in the next three parts, no Advertiser in the final two; the Dickens slip is not in this Part VI, but at the end of the final part are the half-title, title and list of illustrations for binding into book form. Condition is very good-plus (some dustiness of the wrappers, one part with the pea-green wrapper somewhat faded, one part with the signature of a Regent's Park resident at the top of the front wrapper). Wolff 3667a (who erroneaously gives the dates as October 1849 through March 1850). Housed in an attractive morocco-backed slipcase with inner chemise.
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| 1877 |
(Anonymous) |
MY MOTHER IN LAW |
$ 95.00 |
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[Anonymous.] MY MOTHER-IN-LAW. Boston: Lockwood, Brooks, and Company, 1877. 16 pp undated ads. Original brown printed wrappers.
First Edition. To quote from the first two pages of text:
Here we were, only a month married, and spending our honeymoon at a most charming summer resort... Everything was beautiful and attractive... My darling Bessie, as sweet as an angel... Everything, in short, calculated to give us a long summer of delight... That is, if Bessie had only been an orphan. But there was her mother, who had joined us on our summer trip,... and threatened to accompany us through life...
Not hard to figure out why this was published anonymously. This is a very good copy (quite minor soil and edgewear), highly desirable condition for a copy still in the original fragile wrappers. Wright III 3930.
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| 1879 |
Stockton,Frank R. |
RUDDER GRANGE |
$ 60.00 |
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Stockton, Frank R. RUDDER GRANGE. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1879. 6 pp undated ads. Original brown cloth decorated in black and gilt.
First Edition, second issue (with the first ad page concerning "Old Creole Days," and the last ad page describing this work). Stockton would subsequently write two sequels to this early humorous volume, THE RUDDER GRANGERS ABROAD (1891) and POMONA'S TRAVELS (1894). This is a bright, attractive copy, fine except for the slightest of rubbing at the extremities. Blanck 18874.
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| 1877 |
Habberton,John |
THE SCRIPTURE CLUB |
$ 50.00 |
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[Habberton, John.] THE SCRIPTURE CLUB OF VALLEY REST. Or Sketches of Everybody's Neighbours. By the Author of "The Barton Experiment," "Helen's Babies," Etc. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1877. Original green cloth.
First Edition of this volume full of "keen humor and vivid representations of character" (per the endpaper ads). This was one of Habberton's earliest works, published the year after HELEN'S BABIES; he was still unsure enough of his acceptance by the public that he chose to continue (as with the earlier title) in anonymous publication. This is a near fine copy, with one tiny nick at the head of the spine. Wright 2354.
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